What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH11

Chapter 11: The Evil That Cannot Be Hidden

Pei Xiqing slept soundly until dawn. She opened her eyes groggily and instinctively reached for her phone to check the time.

7:00 AM.

Good. I haven’t overslept.

She vaguely remembered hearing someone mention they would roll out at 08:00.

The original owner of this body had been bitten and abandoned by her squad, but surprisingly, her phone hadn’t been lost in the scuffle. Although the apocalyptic network signal was practically non-existent, the internal clock still functioned perfectly.

Lying warmly under the heavy duvet, her curiosity got the better of her. She unlocked the phone and began scrolling.

Everything the original owner had saved was still there, including chat logs and contacts from before the global outbreak. Before the apocalypse hit, the original owner had been a popular live-streamer, specializing in “borderline” content to rack up views. She was apparently quite famous; her WeChat contact list was overflowing with “Big Brother” top-donators from various platforms.

The chat logs were incredibly predictable. These wealthy men constantly begged to meet offline, aggressively flaunting their wealth and trying to woo her. In response, she would just string them along with a few perfunctory, non-committal replies, leaving them frustrated and desperate for more.

Reading through the messages, Pei Xiqing actually burst out laughing.

Turns out, she and I are pretty similar after all.

In her past life, she had worked tirelessly to climb the ranks of the entertainment industry. Being a pop star or an internet celebrity wasn’t fundamentally different—the only distinction was the paycheck. Throughout her career, she had encountered countless men like this. She had refused their advances and lost out on massive resources and casting opportunities because of it, forcing her to grind her way to the position of a rising young actress through sheer talent.

Opening the photo album, she found it packed with heavily retouched, glamorous photos carefully curated to build a specific persona. The original owner had been obsessed with portraying herself as a high-society socialite to farm attention.

Pei Xiqing searched her inherited memories. From what she recalled, the original owner’s parents came from a perfectly ordinary, working-class background.

Yet, the parents had treated their two daughters entirely differently.

The older sister, Pei Yanting, was a mathematical prodigy. The parents poured every single cent of the family’s savings into her education, devoting their hearts, souls, and highest expectations to her success. They were incredibly strict with her from childhood. As for the younger sister—who had terrible grades and preferred hanging out with the wrong crowd—they essentially wrote her off. They ignored her, barely caring whether she came home at night or not.

As a result, when the apocalypse hit, the original owner defaulted to her only survival skill: using her charm to manipulate men for protection. Meanwhile, Pei Yanting, leveraging her genius intellect and the massive plot-armor buffs of being the female lead, ascended to the absolute peak of the wasteland hierarchy alongside her overpowered boyfriend.

While the original owner was desperately scrounging for scraps and relying on sleazy scavengers to survive, Pei Yanting was heavily protected by the military and revered as a brilliant scientist, admired by thousands.

The disparity between the cannon-fodder villainess and the destined heroine was painfully obvious.

Scrolling further down, she found a rare photo of the two sisters together.

Pei Yanting shared about thirty percent of the original owner’s facial features. She wore wire-rimmed glasses, had shoulder-length hair, and exuded an aura of gentle elegance and quiet intellect.

Beside her, the original owner smiled brightly. Her striking peach-blossom eyes carried a youthful, undeniable charm and a hint of mischief that couldn’t be hidden.

Two sisters. Two entirely different destinies in the apocalypse. One met her soulmate and conquered the world, while the other died tragically in a pile of rotting corpses, reduced to nothing more than a stepping stone for the plot.

After reflecting for a moment, Pei Xiqing locked the phone and got out of bed to wash up.

She splashed freezing water on her face, shivering violently.

In this era, resources were agonizingly scarce—especially clean water. The municipal water in this ruined city was contaminated with the virus, but thankfully, not severely enough to cause immediate airborne infection. As long as she didn’t ingest it, washing with it was relatively safe.

After drying her face, she quickly packed her few belongings, threw open the hotel door, and jogged into the corridor. She didn’t see Duan Xiaolin anywhere. He must have returned to the vehicles last night.

In her groggy state, she felt a few scattered, hazy memories of him entering the room last night, but the details were blurred by exhaustion.

She hurried down the stairwell to the ground-floor garage and finally spotted him. He was leaning against the heavy armored door of the G-Class, quietly smoking a cigarette.

The scavenger team was also packing up their camp nearby. Duan Xiaolin had already reloaded all the classified crates he had carried upstairs last night into the trunk. While he smoked, several scavengers tried striking up a conversation with him to curry favor. His attitude wasn’t outright hostile, but it was freezing cold and entirely indifferent. He clearly had zero interest in entertaining them.

Pei Xiqing jogged over, clutching her water canteen. “You’re up early.”

Duan Xiaolin calmly crushed the cigarette under his boot. “Get in. We’re moving out.”

Seeing them prepare to leave, Zhao Shunyan, the Captain of the scavenger team, quickly rallied his men. “Mount up! Let’s go!”

In the wasteland, staying in one location for too long was a death sentence. Zombies were drawn to the concentrated scent of living humans, meaning survival required constant, rapid movement.

Pei Xiqing climbed into the back seat, buckling in. She couldn’t help but look through the rear window.

The two massive scavenger trucks were aggressively tailing them, staying incredibly close to their bumper.

They’re terrified of losing us.

Duan Xiaolin ignored them entirely.

He drove with mechanical precision, occasionally pulling over to examine a freshly killed mutant corpse on the roadside, slicing into the skull with his dagger. Pei Xiqing had no idea what he was looking for. He claimed to be extracting crystal cores, but she never actually saw him pull anything out of the gore.

They drove relentlessly for another ten hours until dusk began to settle over the Gobi. Pei Xiqing was just starting to get used to the bone-rattling pace when the G-Class suddenly braked.

The moment their brake lights flashed, the two heavy trucks behind them screeched to a halt.

Zhao Shunyan immediately jogged up to Duan Xiaolin’s window. “Brother Duan, there looks to be an abandoned village just a few miles ahead. It looks defensible. Should we set up camp there for the night? We’d be happy to share the perimeter defense with you.”

They had been driving through absolutely desolate territory for hours. Finding structural shelter was a godsend. Furthermore, it was getting dark, and Duan Xiaolin was traveling alone with a powerless woman. To Zhao Shunyan, it seemed impossible that he would refuse a secure camp.

“This village isn’t safe,” Duan Xiaolin stated flatly. “It will be hit by a horde tonight.”

“We have plenty of manpower for night watches and patrols,” Zhao Shunyan argued smoothly. “We’ve carved through several hordes on our way here. If they come, we can hold the line. If you’re worried about your safety, you and your companion are more than welcome to stay in the center of our camp.”

“No,” he refused without a second thought. “We are not camping here.”

Pei Xiqing had just unbuckled her seatbelt, preparing to stretch her legs, when Duan Xiaolin turned his head slightly. “Buckle up. We’re pushing forward.”

“Oh. Okay.” She sank back into the seat, snapping the belt into place. She peered through the tinted glass at the distant silhouette of the village. “You know… this village is incredibly strange. It’s sitting in the middle of nowhere, yet there isn’t a single wandering zombie anywhere near the perimeter. Something feels completely wrong.”

Duan Xiaolin glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “Explain.”

“Well, either this area is so incredibly remote that the virus hasn’t reached it yet—which is impossible—or the area has been deliberately and meticulously cleared of mutants. If it’s the latter, it means whoever cleared it is hiding inside, waiting for desperate travelers to walk directly into their trap.”

In the apocalypse, murder, arson, and stealing supplies were as common as breathing. To survive, humans would commit unspeakable atrocities. Wherever there were survivors, there was treachery.

Out here in the lawless wild, far beyond the reach of the central bases, order was a joke.

She had just been thinking out loud, but Duan Xiaolin replied with clinical precision. “There are thirty-six combatants hiding in that village. Two possess offensive abilities, one is a healer, and the rest are unawakened but heavily armed. Based on the perimeter setup, they’ve successfully ambushed and looted several military supply convoys.”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes went wide. “Wait, did you actually see them?”

“There isn’t a single footprint in the sand surrounding the village,” Duan Xiaolin noted, his voice calm. “Yet the stone marker at the entrance is completely wiped clean of dust.”

Her mind raced, instantly connecting the dots. “There was a massive sandstorm last night! If there are no footprints, it means no one has entered or left the village since the storm passed. But if the entrance marker is clean, it means someone inside wiped it down today to make the village look inviting. They are definitely hiding inside!”

Duan Xiaolin rested one hand lightly on the steering wheel, his other arm resting on the open window frame, a fresh cigarette between his fingers. “It seems you possess some basic tactical awareness.”

“I just don’t know how good their counter-reconnaissance is.”

Pei Xiqing looked up, her gaze locking with his dark, penetrating eyes in the rearview mirror. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she offered a gentle, entirely harmless smile. “Why? Are you trying to evaluate me?”

His gaze lingered on her reflection for half a second before returning to the dark road ahead. “I’m curious how a girl with zero combat capabilities survived in the wasteland for this long. I’m curious about the anomaly of your mutation. And…”

He paused, exhaling a stream of smoke. “I’m curious about your true purpose.”

“My purpose?” She fell silent for a long moment. “My only purpose was to survive. But since I’m already infected, I guess that doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“As for my mutation…” Pei Xiqing added softly, “I honestly can’t give you an answer. I don’t know.”

She was still completely in the dark. She could physically feel the bizarre changes occurring in her body, but she couldn’t explain the mechanics behind them. However, her gut instinct told her one crucial fact: the virus was no longer eroding her mind.

There were only the two of them in the quiet cabin of the G-Class. When they weren’t speaking, the silence was so profound they could hear each other’s steady breathing. Pei Xiqing was just formulating a question to ask him when the deafening roar of a heavy diesel engine shattered the peace.

The scavenger team had floored the accelerator, violently catching up to them.

The truck pulled up alongside the G-Class, and the driver leaned out the window, shouting over the engine roar. “Hey! It’s going to be pitch-black if we keep driving! Why don’t we just find a ditch and camp? It’s safer for everyone! Pushing forward is a waste of gas!”

Duan Xiaolin completely ignored him. He accelerated, driving relentlessly into the darkness for another grueling hour before finally killing the engine.

They had stopped in the middle of a barren, frozen desert. It was terrifyingly dark, with absolutely zero ambient light. Only the faint, silver glow of the moon allowed them to barely distinguish the horizon. Pei Xiqing followed him out of the vehicle, immediately shivering violently as the freezing desert wind bit through her clothes.

She pulled her heavy coat tight against her chest. “Are we actually resting out here in the open?”

“You will sleep in the car,” he replied.

“What about you?”

“I will also sleep in the car.”

Pei Xiqing sniffled against the cold. “Okay.”

Fortunately, the interior of the G-Class was massive; it could easily accommodate both of them without feeling cramped.

A minute later, the heavy trucks rolled to a stop behind them.

Several men jumped down from the cab, with Zhao Shunyan leading the pack. He looked incredibly frustrated. “Brother Duan, are you absolutely sure we should be camping out here in the open?”

“If you don’t like it, you are welcome to drive back the way we came,” Duan Xiaolin replied coldly.

“…You arrogant—!” One of the scavengers bristled, stepping forward aggressively, but Zhao Shunyan immediately threw an arm out, stopping him.

Zhao Shunyan forced a tight smile. “Alright, we understand. We’ll set up camp here for the night. Boys, get the rations out and start boiling water. Send a portion over to them when it’s ready.”

Dismissing his men, Zhao Shunyan walked over to Duan Xiaolin, pulling a premium pack of cigarettes from his jacket and offering him one. “We’ve been traveling together for a few days now. I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the proposal I made last night. You’ve seen that we hold no ill intentions. We haven’t tried to attack you. Instead of constantly being on guard against each other, we should officially ally and maximize our survival chances.”

Zhao Shunyan genuinely believed this man was a golden ticket. Anyone who possessed the sheer audacity and skill to navigate the apocalyptic wasteland so fearlessly was worth their weight in gold. This sector was practically a mutant breeding ground; they should have encountered massive hordes every few miles. Yet, by following this man’s exact route, they had barely seen a single zombie.

Even if this man wasn’t a high-ranking military official, he clearly possessed the tactical genius necessary to lead them safely to the central base and navigate around massive mutant swarms.

Zhao Shunyan had ambitious plans to build his own faction within the base, and cooperating with this man was the key to making it happen.

“What exactly do you want to know?” Duan Xiaolin asked, ignoring the offered cigarette.

“Of the five major strongholds, which one is actually worth our time?” Zhao Shunyan asked, dropping the pleasantries. He wanted critical intel: which base possessed the strongest military, the most abundant resources, and offered the best treatment for rogue ability users.

His goal wasn’t just to survive in a base. He wanted to conquer the best one.

“The development and politics of the five bases vary wildly,” Zhao Shunyan continued. “Everyone is looking to climb the ladder. I just want to know where to start.”

Duan Xiaolin leaned casually against the armored door of the G-Class, tilting his head slightly. He pulled a silver lighter from his pocket and lit his own cigarette. The scarlet ember flared brightly in the pitch-black night, the smoke immediately torn away by the howling wind.

“Lightning attribute. Tier Three,” Duan Xiaolin stated smoothly.

Zhao Shunyan’s blood ran cold. His eyes widened in absolute shock. “You—! How do you know that?!”

He didn’t just deduce my ability type; he knew my exact power tier.

Who the hell is this man?!